We are very much enjoying Monterey with its fine breweries, fun wildlife, and the Coastal Recreational Trail that makes this city very walkable!

Getting here was surely not easy and in preparation we not only ensured our safety gear and navigational devices were in order but we wanted to make sure we would have plenty to eat. Not knowing how much motoring, sailing, or how much the swell would rock the boat we wanted easy to grab nourishment.

Dave had read somewhere in one of the many blogs he follows about the usefulness of the vacuum thermos. You know the one, the green Stanley thermos...the one that can withstand nuclear demolition. We use this often to make rice and decided to experiment with making a soup.

Stanley Thermos Rice

• 1/2 cup rice
• 1 cup water

To make rice we use the pressure cooker pot. After breakfast, add rice and water (2:1 ratio water to rice) and bring to boil. Let boil for 2 minutes then pour into the thermos. Seal it, shake it, lie it on its side and by dinner time you have a lovely, fluffy rice.

Stanley Thermos Soup

• 1/4 cup rice
• 3 cups water (enough to fill thermos)
• 1 packet liquid concentrated chicken broth
• 1 cup chopped veggies (we had carrots, green onion, radishes, green beans, and bok choy)

Bring water to boil with rice in pressure cooker pot. Pour into thermos, chuck in vegetables and chicken broth packet. Seal it, shake it, secure the thermos for the trip and enjoy a nice soup in a couple hours.

We had soup and buttered rolls at about 8 pm (11 hours after prep).

Lessons Learned

1. The soup was lukewarm (seems we waited a little to long to enjoy it) and
2. It was pretty bland (not sure what I was thinking not adding any additional seasoning)

It was still good lukewarm as we were pretty chilled as the sun went down and a few splashes of Tapatío spiced it right up.

In addition to preparing the soup in the morning we started with a hearty breakfast, ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches with yogurt and fruit. I made about 5 PB and J sandwiches to enjoy with carrot and dip and pretzel crisps at lunch. Plus we had plenty of trail mix, snack bars, and apples handy.

We didn't starve and we made it!